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Album Reviews
Album Review: Sisters Of Transistors – At The Ferranti Institute (This Is Music)
By Marc Samuels | Published on Tuesday 10 November 2009
Just missing Halloween, ‘At The Ferranti Institute’ has a slightly haunted air about its sinister gothic chamber disco sound (a genre I’ve just made up, and with good reason, since Sister Of Transistors really don’t sound like anyone else).
Masterminded by 808 State’s Graham Massey, though sounding nothing like any of his previous work, The Sisters are an all-girl organ quartet specialising in nifty baroque disco (eg ‘The Don’, a single which remains one of the most genuinely different pop tunes of recent years) and amiable Party Horror Soundtracks (‘The Bells Of Moscow’, ‘Pendulum’).
Opener ‘Tiger Ghee’ vaguely recalls Goldfrapp’s ‘Strict Machine’ with its glam rock drums and dirty bass, though its anthemic call to arms vocals (“Spirits calling all around”) actually put it closer to the kind of ghoulish fun The Black Ghosts are fond of, whilst ‘Volkswagen’ hints at a pastoral quality that recalls ‘Autobahn’-era Kraftwerk, which may be deliberate, given its title.
Despite the contemporary reference points I’ve made (Broadcast is another, with the ghostly vocals and dusty vintage keyboards), ‘At The Ferranti Institute’ is a startlingly refreshing album that’s hard to pigeonhole, but should be appreciated by anyone with a love of slightly mad experimental electronic music with a pop heart lurking somewhere therein. MS
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